Palace / château

Marienburg Castle, Hanover

A Gothic Revival castle on a hill above the Leine valley near Hanover, King George V's gift to Queen Marie, abandoned when the kingdom fell.

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Marienburg Castle, Hanover
Photo: Carsten Steger · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Type
Palace / château
Origins
1858 · 19th century per Wikidata: founding, first mention or construction
Location
Lower Saxony, Germany
Style
Gothic Revival
Coordinates
52.1723°, 9.7665°

History

King George V of Hanover gave the Marienberg hill to his wife Marie for her birthday in 1857, and construction of the castle began in 1858. The design was by Conrad Wilhelm Hase, who after disputes with the court was replaced by Edwin Oppler, the creator of many of the interiors. The building was meant to evoke a medieval knight's seat, complete with towers, battlements and a courtyard. In 1866 Prussia annexed the Kingdom of Hanover, and the queen, who had moved into the barely finished castle, left for exile in Austria in 1867. For over a century Marienburg belonged to the House of Guelph, which auctioned off most of its contents in 2005. In the late 2010s the castle passed for a symbolic one euro to a foundation linked to the state of Lower Saxony, which is restoring it.

What to see

The castle crowns a wooded hill, its towers and walls visible from far across the Leine valley. The interiors keep their Gothic Revival vaults, painted walls and carved panelling, the finest rooms being the Knights' Hall, the queen's library and the castle chapel. The courtyard shows off richly decorated facades, and the grounds look out over the Lower Saxon plain towards distant Hanover.

Wikipedia article Official website Wikidata Q561442

Popularity: articles about this site in 21 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).